As The Nation Bleeds: Our President Goes to Jamaica Again

Yesterday, President Olusegun Obasanjo relapsed, again, to the signature malaise of his presidency. He jetted out again. This time, he is on a five-day junket to Jamaica, Barbados and Senegal. As with many of his impulsive, numerous trips, this is a callous waste of Nigeria's dwindling resources, completely indefensible and totally insensitive.

Recently, the president went to the United States of America for the ninth time in three years. He could not secure an appointment with the American president. And Collin Powell, the secretary of state who saw him did only briefly in a manner that is not dignifying for the leader of the most populous country in Africa.

No American top official met the president at the airport; no one met him at his hotel, contrary to diplomatic protocols. After a brief meeting with President Obasanjo, who drove to the State Department, Powell left for the airport to meet the president of Equatoria Guinea who was accorded the treatment worthy of a visiting head of state.

This was not only a spite on the president and his office. It was a slap on Nigeria. And the president with his indiscriminate trips invited this on himself, on his office and on the country. We find this very objectionable. But nothing can be more unnerving than the president's seemingly incurable inability to get the message.
 

More than anything else, his present one-week trip is in bad taste and very insensate. At a time when the country is bleeding from all its pores, when the economy is in a tailspin and the polity is overheating, we expect the president to roll up his sleeves, jump into the trenches and lead the spirited struggle to tease a realistic way out of this muddle. But either out of a myopic understanding of the crisis at hand, or just a plain disdain for the country, our president jumped on another flight of fancy. All we can be reminded of is the unfortunate image of Emperor Nero fiddling while Rome burns.

This is more than tragic, especially for a president who was elected with the mandate to redeem and re-invent Nigeria. A few months to the end of his tenure, the president has yet to show, beyond mouthing some lame sound bytes, that he understands the enormity of the task before him. The country is miles away from redemption and re-invention. In fact, Nigeria pants under the weight of crushing social, economic and political crises that could be tackled through dedicated, attentive and rigorous leadership.
 

The president, unfortunately, consistently shows a deficit in these critical areas. What he has in surplus is an incurable knack for jumping on the next available plane out of the country, as if he is running away from Nigeria and its problems. Despite many calls for him to stay at home, the president flies off at the slightest notice, for the flimsiest of excuses. As at June 10, 2002, the president had been out of the country for 93 times, for a period of 340 days all within three years, said Chief Gani Fawehinmi, who labeled him the absentee president of Nigeria.

Nothing could be more apt. The president holds the dubious honour of being the most traveled sitting president in the world. His record could only be rivaled by that of Pope John Paul 11, who is said to be the most traveled Pope. In 24 years, the Pope has traveled for 91 times. Perhaps this is understandable for a religious leader with flocks scattered all over the globe.

But our president has even logged more time in the air than the Pope within three years. This is an unfortunate and expensive pastime for a country in dire straits and for a president who in his first coming preached and practised low profile as a national virtue, at a time when Nigeria's economy was more buoyant.

If the profligacy is inexcusable, the way the president diminishes his office and the country with his trips is more odious. He attends events that directors-general of ministries could be sent to. He goes on extended state visits to countries that are of no strategic importance to Nigeria. And he sprints to the United Kingdom and the United States of America as if Nigeria is still a colony or a satellite country. We find it equally objectionable that the president shows a fat disdain for public opinion.

Obasanjo and his men are quick to jump on the defensive about the president's endless trips. They talk about the quest for debt forgiveness, foreign investment and better image for Nigeria. These are honourable intentions. But running a presidency from the air in search of these goals betrays a shallow understanding of his role and a terrible misplacement of priority. It is clear that the president doesn't need to take to the road all the time to burnish Nigeria's image. On the contrary, this is an area where less is more. It is also clear that no country was going to forgive Nigeria's debt.

Foreign investment is worth pursuing with all the vigour available to the president. But the way to do that is to sit at home and fix Nigeria first. Despite all the president's endless road shows, Nigeria has attracted few investments only in the energy and telecommunication sectors. These are investments that would have come despite the president's supposedly aggressive marketing.
 

It is a trite logic that investors go to environments conducive to their operations. Nigeria is yet to be one, and that is the area where the president should have focused his energies. Since the president suggests that he is yet to get this simple logic, it is worth restating that to attract investment Nigeria should provide basic infrastructure, ensure political and economic stability and invest in its human capital.

In April, the president seemingly came to his wit's end when he expressed his frustration to the Financial Times. Then he said: "In three years, I went round the world and I didn't get anything. From April 1999, I went round the countries in Europe, twice over. I went to Japan, to America, to Canada and got good words...but no action at all."

Yet in July the president attended the Nigerian Investment Summit in London ostensibly in search of the elusive investment. Then he boasted that his shuttle-marketing was yielding dividends already. Nigerians were not fooled. With pains, we took notice of the fact that this was a forum attended mostly by Nigerians and an event that should be beneath a president with so much on his plate.

We also note that attending the summit could have been an opportunity for the president to attend his daughter's wedding to an English man in London. We are all for the president performing his fatherly role. But the cultural import of this was not lost on many people. According to Yoruba culture, the wedding should have been held in the bride's compound with all the cultural flourishes of letter writing, prostration, bride-price and drumming and dancing. If it had held in Abeokuta, it would have been an opportunity to showcase Nigeria's rich culture. But our concern here is not culture. That is another trip the taxpayers didn't need to pay for.

The point here is that many of Obasanjo's trips are not just unjustifiable, they are frivolous. The president's latest trip is in total synchrony with his proclivity for frivolities. According to his itinerary, the president will meet with the Nigerian community in Jamaica, he will receive the key of Kingston from the mayor of the city, meet the leader of the country, address a joint session of the parliament and a press conference, do about same in Barbados and stop over in Senegal.

At a time when dark clouds are gathering all over Nigeria, this trip is a flight in irresponsibility. And to be sure, Nigeria is in dire straits. The economy sinks deeper into coma. The 2002 budget is yet to be implemented even when the year is in the third quarter. Inflation and interest rates are hitting the roof. The exchange rate is on a yo-yo. The Naira is on a cascade. The Federal Government and the state governments owe workers' salaries and will owe more. Unemployment multiplies daily. Poverty chokes the land.

The same regime of rudder-lessness and uncertainty pervade the political realm. Four days to the date fixed for local government elections, electoral registers are yet to be reviewed. The electoral commission carries itself like an imperial agent, rather than serving as an unbiased umpire. Violence dogs primaries of political parties. Party conventions are meddled with. Gradually, the democracy that Nigerians suffered for is slipping out of hand. The system is being needlessly overheated.

These are challenging problems that qualify for a national emergency. And that is the more reason why the president should sit at home and shepherd this country through these turbulent times. The argument that the presidency is wherever the president is doesn't work here. These are problems that demand dedication, attention and rigour.

Unfortunately, Obasanjo surrounds himself with courtiers who deceive him that he is doing a marvellous job. Perhaps it is this deception that emboldens him to abandon his responsibility with such reckless abandon. But the ugly truth is that these are fat lies. Nigeria is going down the slope. The president is performing terribly below par. He is fighting below his weight. We believe he could do better if he applied himself to the task. Mr. President, please sit down at home. And work.

ThisDay Editorial

Nov 2002